In an increasingly mobile society, telecommunications service providers are offering many different types of telecommunication services to their customers. With the increasing popularity of wireless communication systems (i.e. wireless cellular telephone systems, wireless cellular personal communication systems (PCS), or paging systems), such services allow users of wireless communication devices (e.g. mobile telephones, mobile data devices, or paging receivers) to manage their availability for communication. Such services are generally provided to users on a subscription basis, and therefore these users are often referred to as subscribers.
One category of telecommunication services is call completion services. Call completion refers to the manner in which a call to a subscriber is processed by the telecommunication system. Call completion services are particularly important in a wireless communication system. Subscribers, while valuing the ability to be reached via a mobile telephone, recognize that there may be certain times (e.g. during meetings) when they do not want to be interrupted by a telephone call.
One type of call completion service is call forwarding, in which telephone calls to a subscriber are forwarded to an alternate destination at certain times. Such alternate destination may be, for example, a secretary, voice mail, or another telephone. Thus, if a caller places a call to the mobile telephone of a subscriber who has call forwarding activated, the call will be automatically routed to the alternate destination.
Another type of call completion service is selective call acceptance, in which only calls from certain telephone numbers are routed to a subscriber telephone during certain times. For example, if a subscriber is in a meeting, he/she may set up selective call acceptance to route all calls, except those from his/her secretary, to voice mail.
Another category of telecommunication services is paging alert reminder service. This service provides subscribers with paging alert messages in order to remind the subscriber of a timed event. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,795 describes a nationwide paging system which interconnects existing local paging services. The system includes an automatic page generator which maintains a list of events that cause pages to be generated for a particular subscriber. One type of automatic page is a time initiated page, which is broadcast at a specific time (e.g. wake-up calls, birthday notices, reminders to take medication, etc.). When the event time occurs, the page generator sends a page for distribution to the appropriate local paging service for broadcast.
Also related to paging messages is U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,473, which is directed to a calendar driven messaging system. It describes an electronic information processing device (e.g. pocket paging assistant, personal computer, electronic pocket organizer, laptop computer, or the like) which communicates with a paging terminal via a conventional modem for automatically sending pre-stored messages to a paging subscriber as reminders for meetings, appointments, or the like. A user enters a message, a time at which the message is to be transmitted, and an identification of a paging subscriber, into the electronic information processing device. The information is stored in a memory of the electronic information processing device until the indicated time occurs. At the indicated time, the electronic information processing device communicates the message to a paging terminal for delivery to the pager associated with the identified subscriber. Thus, the electronic information processing device may be used as a reminder system to notify paging subscribers of timed events. The electronic information processing device is external to the paging system, and communicates with the paging system via a modem. Since the electronic information processing device is not part of the telecommunications network, and does not send messages to the telecommunications network until the alert time has arrived, the electronic information processing device must be continually dedicated to the task of scanning for messages which need to be sent. Further, as a result of being external to the paging system, the electronic information processing device must have continuous access to a phone line in order to communicate a message to the paging system.
In order for a telecommunication service provider to provide individualized telecommunication services (e.g., call completion services and paging alert reminder service) to subscribers, individual subscriber profiles must be stored in a database in the telecommunication network. Such subscriber profiles describe, for each subscriber, the telecommunication service features which the subscriber subscribes to, and the current status of the feature (e.g. active or inactive). In addition, the subscriber profile describes feature descriptions which may be unique for each subscriber so as to allow each subscriber to have a customizable set of telecomnnunication service features.
The problem arises as to how to enter information into a subscriber profile and how to keep a subscriber profile up to date to reflect a subscriber's changing schedule. One method for entering and updating a subscriber profile is for a subscriber to place a telephone call to a processing system which updates the subscriber profile. The processing system may be automated, such that the subscriber updates his/her profile based on commands entered via the telephone keypad. Alternatively, the processing system may be monitored by an attendant, whereby the subscriber conveys his/her profile requests to the attendant and the attendant updates the subscriber profile in the database. One of the drawbacks to such a system is that a subscriber must remember to call in to the processing system when an update to the profile is to be made. Further, the possibility of the subscriber making a data entry error when using the automated system is another drawback to the system.
One automated technique for updating a database containing subscriber information is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,645, which describes an automatic system for forwarding calls. In that system, a subscriber's call forwarding profile is updated based on transactions or activities that indicate the subscriber's location. From the subscriber point of view, these activities are ones which are engaged in for reasons unrelated to call forwarding (e.g. using a credit card or placing a long distance credit card call). An advantage of such a system is that a subscriber's call forwarding profile is updated without any extra effort by the subscriber. A drawback to this system is that call forwarding information is updated only after a subscriber engages in an appropriate activity while at a location. If the user does not engage in such an activity, then the user's call forwarding profile is not updated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,908 describes a system for automatically managing the greetings for a subscriber's voice message system based on information contained in the subscriber's electronic schedule database (e.g. calendar management program database stored in a computer). In accordance with this system, a computer connected to a voice mail system and having access to the electronic schedule database executes a special process. The process periodically checks the subscriber's electronic schedule database and determines if the subscriber's voice mail message needs to be updated. If the voice mail message needs to be updated, the process generates a new message and sends the message to the voice message system. A deficiency of such a system is that, since the computer is not an integral part of the voice message system, and does not generate and send a new message to the voice message system until a scheduled event time is encountered, the computer must be continually dedicated to the task of scanning for scheduled event times which require generation of a message. Further, as a result of not being an integral part of the voice message system, the computer must have continuous access to the voice mail system in order to communicate a generated voice message to the voice message system. Further, the system does not affect call processing (e.g., call routing) based on entries in the electronic schedule database. The routing of the call to the voice message system is not based on information contained in the subscriber's electronic schedule database. The information contained in the subscriber's electronic schedule database only affects the voice mail message heard by a caller after the call is routed to the voice mail system.